Locations - Cheshire

Shops

BIRKENHEAD. Co-op grocery shop, corner of John Street and Grange Road. "Money paid for purchases were placed in a cylindrical shiny metal container and attached to an overhead wire and pulled by a wooden handle by the shop assistant. This sent the container to the cashier who sat in a raised area in the centre of the shop. Change was returned back to the assistant in the same way." WW2 People's War

BIRKENHEAD.Co-op, Woodchurch Road. "Well remember the Co-op... LH side was the Butchery Dept. RH side General Grocery. Both served by the Lamson Paragon [sic] overhead wire cash delivery system." Wirral Wiki

CHEADLE. Co-op, cnr of Wilmslow Road and Gatley Road. "Several straight wires and one long route that went round at least one corner." (Andrew Hunt). Also mentioned (same shop?) in late 1940s and early 1950s by David Branyer in posting to Whirligig message board, 20/11/0

CHESTER.Co-op, ?Foregate Street. "The total [was] written on a small ticket torn from a carboned book. That was put into a cash cup with the money and shot along the overhead wire to a little glass cash office from where the cashier shot back the cup containing any change." Caption at Chester History & Heritage Service

CHESTER. Duttons (grocers). "Messrs. Dutton and Sons' premises have recently undergone extensive enlargement and improvement. The cash railway, recently introduced for transmitting payments to the cashier's desk, is in itself a novelty. Those who have not seen it at work should pay a visit to this establishment and set the "ball a rolling" by a seasonable purchase. Cheshire Observer, 24 Dec. 1887, p.6
• "My grandmother patronised some shops in Chester... Dutton's for groceries, a visit to which was always exciting for us children as thy had a cable system by which cash canisters from the counter would be whizzed overhead along the wires to a central cashier and the change whizzed back." St James' Christleton Parish Magazine, June 2006, p.8

CHESTER.William Jones (provision merchant), Bridge Street. "Your photograph of the Lawson [sic] rapid wire system brought back many memories .. when I used to go into William Jones's shop and stand on the counter so I could pull the wire to send the carrier; this was a treat I looked forward to each week. It's nice to know that it will not be scrapped and that many people will see this fabulous machine." Cheshire Observer, 23 June 1962, p. 1
• "The writer remembers the 'old' shop as it was in the 1920s... The counters were linked with an 'elevated' cash desk, back in the shop, by wires on which ran pulleys and 'balls' of wood which unscrewed in the middle to receive the bill and cash to the desk and then to return the change and receipt back at the counter & customer. An impulse from a spring sent the apparatus 'humming' up the slope and gravity took care of the return journey". E.G.Williams. Chester then and now. Unpublished typescript, 1981. [There seems to be confusion between the Rapid Wire system and the Cash Ball system.]

GATLEY. Co-op, High Street/Oakwood Avenue. "The staff would be standing to attention, and neatly spaced behind the brightly polished counter. The cashier, Miss Morris, had her separate, and very demure enclosure, to which overhead wires led from the counter positions. After a customer had been served, the money together with a bill giving the amount and 'divi' number, would be placed into a container. This would be fastened to the overhead wire, and with a sharp tug on a wooden handle attached to a short rope, it would be fired along the wires to the cashier. Within a trice the change and the 'divi' check would be returned with a self satisfied whine." Gatley website

HOOLE. Co-op, Walker Street. "The arrival of the Co-op in 1906 which included a grocer, a butcher and a shoe and clothing store on the upper floor, was a major event . Many will remember getting their divi and buying milk tokens there as well as the cash pulley system." Hoole Round About website

KNUTSFORD. Wildgoose (drapers and outfitters), Kings Street where Boots is now. "There was a high cash desk with wires, which whizzed the small canister with the bill and cash inside, backwards and forwards above one's head, while customers sat on a bent wooden chair." Knutsford Guardian, 23 Jan. 2003

LYMM.Co-op. Cash carrier in 1950s. (Holt)

MORETON.Co-op. "The kids were always fascinated by the money containers flyin across the store on a wire pulley to a central cashiers booth, then came flyin back with the change and a co-op receipt with your divvy number on it." Wirral History website